What is “chain migration,” and why does Trump want it ended?
President Donald Trump outlined a four-part immigration plan during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Trump’s proposal included a change to the family-immigration system that allows legal immigrants to sponsor family members for green cards, an act that some call “chain migration.”
He cited safety and security as reasons to reform the current family-immigration system.
“In recent weeks, two terrorist attacks in New York were made possible by the visa lottery and chain migration,” Trump said. “It is time to reform these outdated immigration rules, and finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century.”
The president has blasted the practice as a massive immigration loophole that terrorists and “truly evil” people can exploit to infiltrate the U.S. Democrats have defended it as a cornerstone of America’s immigration history.
As the White House and Congress grapple over immigration legislation, the term “chain migration” has quickly become part of the D.C. lexicon.
Put simply, “chain migration” is a derogatory term used to describe the ability of U.S. citizens and green card holders to bring their extended family into the country.
A majority of the roughly one million people who are allowed to enter the U.S. to become permanent residents each year are approved because they’re related to Americans.
A U.S. citizen from New York City, for example, can sponsor her husband in Nepal for a green card. A green card holder from San Francisco can sponsor his daughter in Senegal. An American in Illinois can sponsor her niece in Israel.
Trump wants to end this process because he says it opens the door for too many uneducated, under-qualified, and possibly dangerous, immigrants to legally enter the U.S.
He has hammered that point ever since police arrested a 27-year-old man accused of setting off a pipe-bomb in a commuter tunnel near Times Square in December.
That suspect, Akayed Ullah, has been living in Brooklyn since 2011 after entering the country on an F-4 visa, which is granted to brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews of U.S. citizens.